No excuses. No excuses. We are accountable for what we do. We are accountable to God. And what God has called us to do, we can do. No excuses.
If God has chosen us, then He has expectations. There are Kingdom tasks to be performed, there is a witness to be made, there is something that each of us is to be doing for God. I hear Him insisting, "No excuses."
The theme of our Lenten series is, "Broken People for a Broken World". Broken people for a broken world. If that’s too long for you to remember, then shorten it to "no excuses". Let me explain.
Many of us speak of being hurting people. We describe ourselves as being in pain; we think of ourselves as wounded; we believe we are impaired in one way or another. A good many of us seem to think of ourselves as broken people.
Not for one moment would I deny anybody’s hurt. Not for an instant would I discount anyone’s difficulties. I have visited enough homes, stood at enough gravesides, sat in enough counseling sessions, and hovered at enough hospital beds to know that pain is real and that personal anguish is immobilizing. I know that all of this is true.
But I also know the Gospel. And I know that in the Gospel, the good news, the bottom line is "no excuses" . "No excuses," because, by the power of Christ, we can rise above our hurts. We can go beyond our pain and our brokenness to accomplish something for the Kingdom. No matter who we are, no matter what we have suffered, we can do something for the Kingdom. No excuses.
In fact, I will say more. Our very brokenness is the stuff out of which Christ can make something beautiful for the Kingdom. Our brokenness is not a liability; it is an asset. Our brokenness is not a hindrance; it is a requirement before we can be effective. No excuses; do not tell me that in your pain and brokenness you can do nothing for the Kingdom. Listen to the Gospel and it will tell you that this brokenness is exactly what God needs in order to use you. So there are no excuses, not any more.
During the next several weeks we are going to examine this great truth. We are going to soak in it until it becomes a part of the fabric of our lives. Two or three instruments will be used to help us see this.
First, of course, are the stories of the Bible. I have selected six New Testament personalities in whose lives this truth worked itself out. Six men and women who were flawed, seriously flawed ... six men and women who could have made every excuse for doing nothing … but who, when Christ got hold of them, he turned their weaknesses into strength, he changed their brokenness into something our broken world needed. We will walk through six Biblical lives together during Lent.
Second, we will hang all this en the framework of a hymn you know well. The hymn "Just As I Am” contains in its six short verses a wealth of insight about living beyond brokenness. We will sing it in one way or another every Sunday and we will let its words capture these six Biblical lives. We will discover, over and over again, that even with a broken life ... or in fact, because of a broken life ... people of faith can do something for the Kingdom in a broken world.
I hope, too, to illustrate this truth with brief video clips and with short dramatic vignettes. I want you to know that we are working with real lives here, not just with unattainable ideals. With real, living, breathing, flesh and blood lives.
The bottom will be, “No excuses.” No excuses.
The first New Testament life to speak to us will be the life of Paul. The great apostle to the nations, the matchless interpreter of the Christian faith, a literary giant, one of history’s most influential minds … Paul started out as a broken person.
There are two ways of looking at Paul’s brokenness.
I
First, I want you to see that Paul found out that he could not plead his brokenness, he could not make excuses, because he discovered that God used his infirmity as a channel for the power of Christ. Paul found that he could not plead weakness because Christ used his weakness to create strength.
Paul tells us in the second Corinthian letter about something he terms a “thorn in the flesh” II Corinthians 12:7b-11
No one really knows what the thorn in the flesh was. Various theories have been proposed about illnesses of one kind or another, but we don’t know. It might have been more emotional than physical. Who knows, since Paul calls it a "messenger of Satan n 1 but what it was some gadfly personality who showed up every time Paul preached and shot barbed questions at him from the sidelines! That’s possible. Some have even brashly suggested that the thorn in the flesh was a woman who tempted Paul. Sounds a bit sexist, doesn’t it? We don’t know.
Whatever it was, the "thorn in the flesh" bothered Paul. It tormented him. It would not go away. And it came to carry emotional weight for him. He says it kept him from being too elated. It kept him from euphoria. It forestalled any notion that he was a superman. The very instant that Paul would feel like congratulating himself on his stirring sermon or his compelling argument, the thorn in the flesh would pop up to say, "You’re not so hot. You’re only human. Don’t get too big for your britches."
And Paul tried to get rid of this problem. Three times, he says, he appealed to the Lord to remove this pain, this brokenness. And it never did go away. It would have made a great excuse. It would have been a great reason for Paul to take to his bed or haul out the old rocking chair and do nothing.
But when the pain would not leave an insight came to Paul. In the midst of his brokenness and his frustration the Lord taught him what the purpose of this brokenness was. "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."
You see, weakness, brokenness, is an avenue for God to use. Brokenness is not a hindrance; it is an opportunity. Weakness is not a barrier; weakness is a requirement before we can do something for the Kingdom. Until we know how weak we are, we will not know how to depend on the strength of Christ.
"So," Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong."
Paul could not plead the thorn in the flesh. Paul could not plead that he was too broken or too weak. Nor can we plead that we are too old or too young, to poor or too anything. Our very flaws are really opportunities for Christ to work through us.
Charlotte Elliott was a sickly English woman who had developed a long history of refusing to do things she was asked to do because of her illness. Her brother, who was a pastor, had been particularly persistent in trying to get her out of herself, trying to get her involved in doing something positive. But Charlotte had always refused. "I’m not feeling up to it. I’m an invalid, you know. I just don’t think I can."
In 1834 her brother asked one more time. They were trying to raise funds for a school for young women. Charlotte Elliott was asked to help ... at least just to go to the event and do something, anything. But again she refused, again she spoke of being too tired, too sick. And so the family all went off and left her home alone.
That night Charlotte Elliott began to think about how sickness was taking over her life. she began to feel ashamed, because she would not risk anything for the Kingdom. She realized that that her brokenness had become the most important thing, maybe the only thing, in her life. And that night Charlotte Elliott heard the call of God. Out of her restlessness, out of her self-hatred, she wrote, "Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, 0 Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am, and waiting not.. just as I am, with many a conflict, many a doubt. Yes, just as I am, poor, wretched, blind... just as I am, I come." Yes, I’m a mess, but I am coming. No more excuses. Without one plea.
For Charlotte Elliott was learning the lesson Paul had learned .. that handicaps are not handicaps but challenges; that brokenness is but a step on the way to wholeness; that feeling like you are nothing is not a barrier to Kingdom service.
No excuses. . No excuses. For Christ will take our weakness, our brokenness, and his grace is sufficient, for power is made perfect in weakness.
Several years ago now a woman in our congregation volunteered for service as a deacon. We accepted her with hesitation. Our eyes told us that here was someone who was not very well. Having suffered a serious illness some while back, she could not walk well, she could not speak clearly. Obviously a person with a handicap. But we took a chance on Emma Russell’s abilities.
Over the three years of her term and beyond it Emma Russell proved to be one of the most faithful, the most diligent, the most consistent deacons I have ever seen. She stayed in touch with her little flock; she expressed interest in and concern for people she could not go and visit, but that telephone of hers became an instrument in the hands of Christ. There are people in this room today who would likely not be involved in the church at all had it not been for the ministry of Emma Russell, who made no excuses for her brokenness. Without one plea, without one excuse, in weakness she was strong.
Paul could not plead his thorn in the flesh. And we cannot make excuses for ourselves. "Just as I am, without one plea, but that His blood was shed for me." "Whenever I am weak, then I am strong."
II
But, now, however, let’s turn to another side of this. You may be saying, "Well, pastor, that’s fine. That’s all very sweet. But that doesn’t apply to me. I don’t think of myself as broken. I don’t have a destructive disease. There is no mountainous obstacle in my life. No, pastor, the thing is, I really am kind of above all this church stuff. I don’t have time or energy for this missions thing, this ministry thing. Pastor, what you need to understand is that my life is very complicated. I have many responsibilities. My job is very demanding. My work is important. I think you’ll just have to excuse me from Kingdom business."
"I think you’ll just have to excuse me from doing evangelism, because I have bigger projects on my drawing board. I think you’ll have to excuse me from praying with the Wednesday night crowd because I need to be out there in the club and in the ward and in my social set. Pastor, you’ll just have to excuse me from these training programs you’re talking about or these missions trips you want us to take or these day camps for children you want to put on … you’ll just have to excuse me, because I really think I’m beyond all of that.”
And my reply to all of that is, "No excuses. No excuses." We are accountable for what we do. We are accountable to God. And what God has called us to do, we can do. No excuses.
If God has chosen us, then He has expectations. There are Kingdom tasks to be performed, there is a witness to be made, there is something that each of us is to be doing for God. I hear Him again insisting, "No excuses."
And just as a moment ago Paul taught us that we cannot plead our brokenness as an excuse, he can also teach us that we cannot plead our wholeness as an excuse. We cannot plead our goodness as an excuse. We cannot take our competencies, our skills, our positions, our privileges, and make out of them excuses for not doing Kingdom work. Listen to Paul again: Philippians 3:4b-ll
Maybe that list of Paul’s credentials didn’t get to you. Maybe you cannot identify with all that stuff about being a member of the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee. Let me translate it for you. Let me bring it up to date for you.
If Paul were here today, he might say:
If anyone has a reason to be excused, I have an even better one. You were born working class? I was born in the middle class, the uppity class, and you understand that I don’t get my hands dirty.
You went to school and got a job? I went to college and even to graduate school, and I have a certain dignity to maintain. I can’t very well get down with a child.
You grew up in a Baptist church in the south? I am a member of Takoma Park Baptist Church, where we are careful not to get too excited and where we gladly vote for the staff to do the work.
You came through some hard times and trials, you used to drink and drug and play around before you came to the Lord? Well, I have never.. never, do you hear .. I have never blotted my copybook or stained my record.
That’s roughly what Paul might say if he were among us today. He would be able to list his credentials with the best of us. But listen to what else he would say:
All this I have come to regard as loss. All this I have come to regard as rubbish, all this is nothing. All this I have come to regard as so much smelly garbage ... because Christ is so much more. Christ is so much more.
"I must gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own .. but one that comes through faith... I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death."
No excuses. None. No attainment is too great to excuse us from Kingdom service. No credential is impressive enough to exempt us. We must become
broken people for this broken world.
Just as we are.. without one plea .. our wholeness counts for nothing, our degrees, our bank accounts, our security, our dignity.. but the only thing that matters is Christ, Christ receiving us just as we are and then using us. His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Conclusion
We are accountable for what we do. And what God has called us to do, we can do.
If God has chosen us, then He has expectations There are Kingdom tasks to be performed, there is a witness to be made, there is something that each of us is to be doing for God.
We are not just useless nobodies, because Christ died for us, Christ shed His blood, and so empowered us.
But neither are we big wheels, too good for the nitty-gritty stuff. For Christ had to die for us Christ had to shed His blood for us to show us the depth of our sin.
There are simply no excuses.
But, just as we are, without one plea.. without the plea of brokenness, without the plea of business. Without the plea of pain, but without the plea of power. Without the plea of a thorn in the flesh, but also without the plea of pride.
There is one thing only.. his blood was shed us and He invites us to come. Just come. No excuses. Just as you are. Just come.
